Life is Largely a Matter of Expectation
by survivingbellarke
Summary: Clarke Griffin is an Art student at Arkadia University. Bellamy Blake is a History Doctoral candidate at Arkadia University. After a rocky start an unlikely friendship blossoms between the two of them.
1. Chapter 1

Clarke's head was filled to the brim with new information. Induction seminars, new timetables, reading lists and lecture rooms mostly. She had been told this year would be stressful, but she didn't expect it to be this intense straight from the get go. As a third year Fine Art and History of Art double honours student at Arkadia University, Clarke was getting ready for the hardest year of her academic life yet. Walking out of the campus gates Clarke forced her way through the throngs of new first years to the crowded bike stores, slipping on her helmet she began the short bike ride to her favourite coffee shop slash bike repair store slash bar; The Dropship.

"Hey Octavia," Clarke said as she walked into The Dropship, parking her bike at the entrance.

"Hiya Clarke," Octavia smiled brightly at Clarke, "the usual I presume?"

"Yes please, no uni today then?" Clarke walked over the to the bar, chatting with Octavia as she made her a coffee.

"Nope, my first class is tomorrow, perks of being a psychology student is hardly any contact hours this year." Octavia handed Clarke her coffee and chucked a biscuit onto her plate. "On the house, I know you're stressed already!"

"Tell me about it." Clarke laughed, "I'll see you in a bit ok O?" Octavia waved and got back to work as Clarke found a seat and pulled out her book The Iliad. Homer was her guilty pleasure, she loved the romance mixed together with the death and violence, and the insignificance of the mortal world, as seen by the mythical Greek Gods. Her copies of both The Iliad and The Odyssey were so old and battered, she kept telling herself that the sellotape that held much of the binding together was temporary and that she would definitely buy new copies soon, but she couldn't bare to part from these editions just yet.

It was at least an hour before Clarke looked up from her book, having immersed herself fully in the Ancient Greek world. In fact, she was so far away from real life that she almost jumped out of her skin when a balled up piece of paper hit her in the forehead.

"Jasper." She sighed as she closed her book and looked up at the grinning face above her.

"I knew we'd find you here! Did you have a good summer?" Jasper asked, enveloping Clarke in a tight hug.

"Hi, Jasper! Hi, Monty!" Clarke grinned despite herself, maybe the stress of her degree could still be held off for a little bit longer. She moved away from Jasper to hug his best friend and roommate Monty.

"Don't mind Jasper Clarke, he's over excited already and we've only been back in the city for a couple of days." Monty rolled his eyes and shook his head at Jasper, who was still grinning madly as well as bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.

"I'm going to go see Octavia, drink Clarke? Monty?" They both nodded and Jasper bounded towards the bar.

"So how was your first day, Clarke?" Monty asked as they both sat down.

"Stressful, yours?" Clarke knew that if anyone would understand how high her stress levels were it would be Monty, he was a biochemistry student.

"Same, I already have a shit tonne of work today. Plus the speech about how important our Dissertations are." Monty put on a whiny voice, imitation his head of department, 'start working hard from day one, don't have a social life until June, etcetera etcetera."

"Ah yes, I got that same speech." Clarke laughed, well at least she wasn't the only one who wouldn't be partying much all year.

"Drinks! Ice tea for you Monty and a black coffee for Clarke, to match her soul." Clarke rolled her eyes at Jaspers' comment as he set the tray down on the table in between Clarke and Monty. "Oh and Octavia gets off in five so I told her to come and join us."

"Wow is it that time already?" Clarke looked at her watch and saw it was five to seven, she'd arrived at five o'clock. Oops, she'd already lost an evening's work, what a good start to this year she thought.

"Stop worrying about school Clarke it's only the first day!" Jasper said, reading her mind.

"Ok ok fine," Clarke smiled, yes she should loosen up it is only the first day after all. "Oh you should all come over to my new flat, and meet my roommate Raven, she's just transferred to the city to study engineering, she's cool!"

"Yeh! First house party of the year wooh!" Jasper lifted his arms up in celebration. "Monty and I will bring the drinks..and other stuff, right Mon?" Monty was known for his homemade alcohol and it was a widespread secret that not all the weeds in the boys' garden were there when they moved in.

"Always happy to help people have a good time." Monty grinned, taking a sip of his ice tea.

'Cool, how does Friday night sound then?" Clarke asked, making a mental note to mention this to Raven.

"What are we doing Friday night?" A voice said from behind Clarkes' chair.

"Octavia! Housewarming at Clarkes', we all need to meet her new roommate plus her new place is bound to be huge." Jasper budged over on his chair to allow Octavia to squeeze onto one side.

"Cool, I'm not working Saturday as well so I can get trashed with no consequences." Octavia looked over to the bar, where someone that Clarke didn't recognise was working. "Also can I bring Lincoln? He's just started working here and he's new to the city as well so it would be great for him to meet people."

"Of course, the more the merrier!" Clarke felt excitement bubble up in her chest, she'd forgotten how much her friends meant to her after being away all summer.

By the time Clarke left The Dropship it was dark and Clarke was glad her ride home was easy because she was not a fan of cycling long distances in the dark. As she cycled home she grinned to herself, with all her friends around her this year she couldn't see how she couldn't work hard and enjoy her final year of university at the same time.

Raven was already asleep by the time Clarke came in so she didn't mention the upcoming party, but so far Raven had seemed cool and her boyfriend was coming into town for the weekend anyway so Clarke had a good feeling that Raven would be more than up for meeting some new people on Friday night. Yes, she thought, settling into bed, nothing was going to mess up this year for her.


	2. Chapter 2

Clarke's first week back at Arkadia University was mostly uneventful. She sat in her final lecture of the week, listening to her professor drown on about some form of Conceptual Art which she probably should be listening to in more detail. However her mind was wandering to tonight, her first party of this year, Raven had been totally on board straight away as Clarke had expected.

"A party sounds like a perfect way to christen the new flat!" Raven had said, Clarke remembered. "Oh, and Finn will be down so I can introduce him to everybody." Raven had met Octavia, Jasper and Monty at spare moments throughout the week, but this would be the first time she and her boyfriend Finn would hang out with the whole gang.

"Sweet, I'll tell Octavia that she's good to invite people." Clarke grinned at her roommate, Octavia was much better at party planning than either Clarke or Raven.

"Ok class, that's it for this week, remember to do the reading for next week!" Clarke was jerked out of her thoughts by the sudden scraping of chairs as her class began to leave the lecture hall. Oops, she thought, Clarke had completely missed the last twenty minutes of her lecture.

On her way back home she popped into The Dropship to grab a quick coffee and to meet Octavia, who was coming over early to make Clarkes' house 'party ready' or something.

"Hey O, how's it going?" Clarke walked straight up to the bar to talk to her friend. The Dropship always had enough customers to keep it running, but it never felt crowded and Clarke almost never had to wait to get served.

"Hiya Clarke, coffee?" Octavia moved around the bar to hug Clarke, before turning the coffee machine on. "To go of course, as we have a flat to decorate!" Octavia practically squealed, Clarke had never met such an enthusiastic person in her life.

"Thanks, Octavia, when do you finish?" Clarke leant over the bar, trying to spy the timetable that Octavia's manager kept around somewhere.

"Now! My shift officially ended at five, but I was waiting for you to come in before I clocked out." Octavia handed Clarke two coffees, before taking off her apron and walking out from behind the bar. "I'm just going to grab my stuff, and tell Kane I'm leaving." Kane had been her manager for the three years Octavia had worked her, he was kind hearted but strict enough to make sure The Dropship stayed successful, Clarke remembered.

Barely five minutes had passed before Octavia reappeared, pulling her hair out of the high ponytail she kept it in for work. "I'm just going to say bye to Lincoln, and remind him to swing by tonight," Octavia said, grabbing her coffee out of Clarke's hand and bounding back over to the bar. Clarke laughed and rolled her eyes, it was hard to keep Octavia focused on one thing for too long, she was always flitting between different friends, and Clarke couldn't keep up half the time. If they hadn't been friends since high school, Clarke probably would have faded into the background of Octavia's life by now.

"Ok ready?" Clarke asked when Octavia finally walked back towards Clarke, who had been standing by the door for the last fifteen minutes waiting for her friend to finish talking to Lincoln.

"Yes, shall we pick up some food on the way back?" Octavia asked, opening the door for Clarke.

"Sounds perfect." Clarke smiled at her best friend, as they walked down the high street.

—

After what felt like an eternity of Octavia shoving various party foods into Clarke's hands, they had finally made it back to Clarke's apartment, bags full of as much crisps and dip as any normal person could want. They dumped their shopping bags on the kitchen table and heading into the living room to put up the strings of fairy lights and other decorations Octavia had brought over a few days, insisting that the flat needed brightening up.

"Hey!" Clarke heard Raven shut the front door.

"We're in here.' Clarke yelled to Raven.

"How's it going in here?" Raven leant against the door, surveying Octavia's decorations.

"Apparently our house wasn't 'party ready'" Clarke laughed as Octavia stuck her tongue out at both of them.

"Damn does that mean I'm going to have to shower too?" Raven grinned evilly at Octavia.

"Yes." Octavia said, "and I'm ignoring your sarcasm."

"If I have to wear something other than pyjamas then you have to shower," Clarke added, looking at Octavia who was nodding eagerly.

"Guys if you don't do this properly then there's no point." Octavia moaned, sticking her bottom lip out.

Raven and Clarke laughed at Octavia's pout. "We're just messing with you O, I promise we're taking this seriously." Clarke hugged her best friend, who immediately cheered up.

"Good! Then I'm leaving you to finish up here, I need to go and get ready, we only have an hour until people start arriving!" Octavia waved, grabbed her bag and walked out of Clarke and Ravens flat.

"That was her plan wasn't it?" Raven asked as soon as the front door had shut.

"Yep, should have seen that coming." Clarke rolled her eyes and stuck the final decoration up. "You go and shower, I'll finish setting up here and in the kitchen."

"Sweet, have fun," Raven said, turning and leaving the room.

Clarke moved around the living room, picking up random shoes and other things that the two of them had left around the room. She dawdled into the kitchen and began to put all the food she and Octavia had brought into bowls. Luckily she had cleaned the kitchen the day before so it there wasn't much to do here. Hearing Raven get out of the shower Clarke looked at her watch and saw that she only had half an hour before guests started arriving, and she could bank on the fact that Octavia would be early, to make sure Clarke and Raven hadn't messed up all of her hard work. As Clarke walked into her room she saw that Octavia had laid out an outfit on her bed, a short black skirt with a sparkly blue top. Clarke sighed, why couldn't she just wear her pyjamas? But her fight would be in vain as if Clarke wasn't wearing what Octavia picked out for her, as soon as her friend arrived Clarke would be marched back into her room and made to get changed. So she put on the outfit picked out from her, feeling glad she had shaved her legs only a few days ago. Being an artist meant that she was stupidly good at putting on makeup, on the off occasion that she wore some. Looking in her full-length mirror she saw that she actually looked good for once, the top made the blue in her eyes stand out, accentuated by the way she had done her eye makeup, and her hair was falling in light waves down her back. Plus the best part about having a party at her own him meant that she didn't have to wear shoes, and she refused to let Octavia persuade her to put on any. Just as she put on a final bit of lipstick, she heard the doorbell ring, it was that time already? Clarke thought to herself.

"I've got it." She yelled to Raven. Opening the front door she saw that her porch space was filled up by Octavia, Jasper, Monty and his boyfriend Nathan Miller. "Hey, guys!" Clarke said, greeting her friends.

"Hi Clarky!" Octavia hugged Clarke and then held her at arm's length to get a good look at her outfit. "I'm so glad you liked what I picked out for you!"

"Yeh, thanks for that O," Clarke said sarcastically, and Octavia stuck her tongue out and walked past Clarke into the house.

"Hey Clarke," Jasper grinned and patted her on the head before moving past her, one hand full of what looked like a tin of questionable brownies.

"Ok then," Clarke raised her eyebrows questionably at Monty and Miller.

"Don't ask," Monty hugged Clarke and motioned to Miller. "We've got a keg to bring in, can you grab the door while we bring it in?"

"Sure." Clarke stood back to let the two boys squeeze the huge keg into Clarke's flat. "Oh and Monty you should introduce Miller to Raven, I think she's in her room." Monty nodded his head to Clarke above the keg and proceeded to trudge into the kitchen. No sooner had Clarke closed the door and gotten half way to her living room, the doorbell rang again. Standing on her porch were two guys who she didn't recognise at all.

"Who are you?" She asked bluntly.

"Is my sister here?" Said the man on the right, he was tall, tan and muscular with floppy brown hair the exact same colour as, "Octavia" He said interrupting her thought as he pushed past her and hugged her friend.

"Hey, I'm John Murphy, most people just call me Murphy." The other man held out his hand to shake Clarkes, before following Octavia's brother into her flat.

"Ok," Clarke said under her breath. That was weird, she had known Octavia had an older brother but in her six year friendship with Octavia Clarke had never once met him. Clarke shut the door and moved towards Octavia, pulling her away from her conversation with Raven, her mysterious brother nowhere to be seen.

"Octavia." Clarke started.

"I know I know I should have told you that Bell was coming but I knew you wouldn't mind and I've known you for so long now I can't believe you've never met him!" Octavia interrupted.

"Yeh that's fine he was just rude that's all, he didn't even introduce himself." Clarke crossed her arms and pursed her lips.

"That's just him. I promise he'll warm up to you soon." Octavia said, grabbing Clarke's arm and dragging her into the kitchen, where Octavia's brother was standing in a corner with a beer in his hand.

"Clarke, this is my big brother Bellamy, Bellamy, this is my best friend Clarke who you rudely barged past earlier. You've both heard enough about each other so it's like you're practically friends already." Octavia introduced them both before flouncing off so fast that they were both left gaping after her.

"Beer, princess?" Bellamy smirked at her, handing her one of his beers.

"I - uh, thanks, I guess." Clarke took a sip of beer, taking aback by his confidence. "Princess?" She said, swallowing her beer.

"Well that's practically what you are, isn't it? Perfect family, perfect education, perfect flat." He said, gesturing around her kitchen.

"What! No! What makes you think that?" Clarke pursed her lips, searching Bellamy's face for a sign of what he meant.

"Please princess, everybody knows that your mother is the warden here and that she's close to the Mayor." Bellamy was still smiling, and his eyes felt like they were boring a hole into her brain.

"Well yes, but why do you care?" Clarke took another sip of her beer and crossed her arms.

"It doesn't, of course. Don't you want to know why I'm here?" Bellamy raised a single eyebrow at her.

"I - well uh, yeh I guess so. I thought you were studying abroad?" Bellamy was completely flustering her. And she hated it.

"I was, in Athens, but now I've finished my first degree I enrolled at Arkadia University as a doctoral candidate." Athens, Clarke thought, what an incredible place to study.

"Athens wow." She breathed, thinking back to the stories in The Iliad and The Odyssey.

"Yep that's in Greece, princess," Bellamy responded.

"No shit Sherlock." Clarke scoffed, "I'm not some sort of idiot."

"Ah, of course not," Bellamy smirked again. "Here I was thinking you were some sort of art student." Clarke's jaw dropped.

"What's wrong with art?" She snapped.

"Nothing, it's just not particularly difficult is it?" He said, reaching across her to grab a Dorito from the bowl behind her.

"Of course it is!" Clarke snapped, her temper rising.

"Now now princess, don't get your panties in a twist," Bellamy muttered, one corner of his mouth twitching.

"Ugh if you're just going to stand here and insult me in my own kitchen, then I'm leaving." Clarke narrowed her eyes and Bellamy, "thanks for the beer." She spat before flouncing out of the kitchen. How could someone as awesome as Octavia have a brother as insufferable as Bellamy?


	3. Chapter 3

As the night progressed Clarke found herself getting steadily drunker and drunker. She was giggling in the corner with Octavia over many glasses of Monty's lethal moonshine, although when Lincoln arrived later, Octavia squealed and jumped into his arms and Clarke was left to her own devices. Clarke wandered around her house flitting between different people, watching Jasper and his friend Maya getting closer and closer together in a corner of her living room. Clarke was suddenly feeling very single, it had been almost a year since her relationship with Lexa went down the drain and it seemed like everybody here was with someone.

"Hey, Clarke! How's your night going?" Raven sat down next to Clarke on the couch, handing her a fresh drink.

"Pretty good, everybody seems to be having a good time." Clarke took a gulp of her drink, feeling a shiver go down her back because of how strong it was.

"Tell me about it, who's that guy Octavia is with?" Raven laughed at Clarke and pointed to Lincoln who was talking to Octavia and someone else who Clarke didn't recognise. She rolled her eyes at Octavia's ability to invite people to Clarke's party that Clarke didn't even know.

"That's Lincoln, he's just started working at The Dropship, I think she actually likes him." Clarke raised her eyebrows at Raven, Octavia was notorious for her lack of emotions.

"Wow, I've only known her for a week and even I know that's unusual." Raven smirked, "maybe it'll be good for her."

"Tell me about it." Clarke leant back into the sofa, scanning the room.

"Who's that?" Raven gaped as Bellamy walked into the room, he caught Clarke's eye and winked before moving across the room to talk to Octavia.

"That's Octavia's brother Bellamy, he's an ass." Clarke sent a withering glare into his back.

"He sure doesn't look like an ass, if I wasn't in a happy relationship I'd be all over that." Raven grinned cheekily at Clarke.

"Well I guess it's a good thing for me that you're happy with Finn then, so I don't have to see his stupid face all the time." Clarke took another, rather large, sip of her drink.

"Woah, what did he ever do to you? I mean aside from looking like that I mean." Raven winked and stuck her tongue out at Clarke.

"Nothing he's just over confident and a jerk. Plus he thinks History is better than Art." Clarke wrinkled her nose in disgust, something she probably wouldn't have done if she wasn't so intoxicated. "…and he called me princess." She added.

"Aww did he make you feel like the little rich girl you are?" Raven put on her baby voice and stuck out her bottom lip, imitating Clarke.

"Shut up." Clarke shoved Raven away, who immediately starting laughing.

"He's probably not that bad, everything just seems worse because you're drunk," Raven said as she stood up. "Anyways I'm going to go find Finn, don't let him get under your skin! Or do, you know, that might fix your problem." And before Clarke could start protesting, Raven had left. Clarke leant back into the sofa and closed her eyes, enjoying the sound of party music playing in the background.

"Hey, princess." Her eyes snapped open and focused on Bellamy Blake standing above her, smirking. Raven was right, he was a gorgeous human being, with curly brown hair that flopped into his twinkling brown eyes, and a light smattering of freckles on his cheeks, highlighting his already tanned complexion. Ugh, Clarke thought, who was tanned in this weather?

"What do you want." Clarke snapped.

"Nothing, just saw you sat by yourself, and I couldn't let that happen." Bellamy handed her a fresh drink - why was everybody always doing this?! Clarke thought to herself. - And sat down next to her. She took the drink begrudgingly and had a sip. Vodka tonic, she thought.

"Well then, words empty as the wind are best left unsaid." Clarke sighed, crossing her legs and glancing at Bellamy out of the corner of her eye.

"I thought you were an art student?" He said, suddenly sitting up straighter and looking at her questioningly.

"I am." Clarke rebutted defensively.

"So then why are you quoting Homer at me?" Bellamy looked baffled, making Clarke glee with satisfaction.

"Guilty pleasure." And it seemed these two words were enough to make Bellamy Blake's head explode.

"Homer is not someone's guilty pleasure! His work deserves your full attention or nothing!" Bellamy shot at her, sitting up straight and staring into her eyes.

"Well I'm not dedicating my life to Homer, but I'll still read his stories when I want to." Clarke shot back, she was glad she was too drunk to care about anything anymore.

"Well, princess, I've been studying him and his influences for almost five years now." Bellamy ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "and I've never met somebody who has quoted him to me drunk." Clarke looked up at him and Bellamy smiled at her. "I guess there's a first time for everything." He put his hand on her knee and stood up. Clarke felt a jolt of electricity raced up her body from the point where he had touched her. "See you around princess." Bellamy winked at her as he left the room. What the bloody hell was that?! Clarke shook her head in an attempt to get her thoughts straight.

—

The rest of the night was a blur of laughter, more drinking and dancing, but by the early hours of the morning Clarke found herself sat in the living room with Raven and Octavia (who was staying in their spare room as going home was too much effort she had decided) eating leftover snacks.

"So Octavia, what's going on with you and that Lincoln guy?" Raven asked between mouthfuls of popcorn.

"I'm not sure yet, I work with him so I don't want things to be awkward, but we'll see." Octavia shrugged her shoulders and giggled. "Where's Finn gone?" Octavia asked.

"Asleep, he passed out a couple of hours ago. He's always been a lightweight. Good job changing the subject there O." Raven stuck her tongue out and Octavia slapped her playfully. "What about Clarke?" Raven asked, and both girls simultaneously turned to look at Clarke who was halfway through a mouthful of m&ms.

'What." Clarke said with her mouth full.

"First of all, gross Clarke, don't talk with your mouth full." Octavia looked disapprovingly at her best friend. "And secondly, I saw you talking to my brother for ages!"

"Ooh yeah tell us about that!" Raven grinned at Clarke.

"Why, there's nothing to tell. He's an ass, who thinks he's better than everyone." Clarke said, "sorry O, I know he's your brother."

Octavia shrugged, "no worries, he's always been kind of an ass. He's got this huge chip on his shoulder about our upbringing, and hates people who take their lifestyle for granted."

"Oh, now everything makes sense." Clarke thought back to their conversations, and Bellamy's reaction - and nickname - made more sense to her. Didn't mean he had to be rude to her, she thought begrudgingly.

"Wait I don't get it, Octavia, what was wrong with your upbringing? You seem fine to me." Raven asked, and Clarke winced at her brashness. It wasn't Raven's fault, she had no idea what Octavia had been through.

"It's a long story, but basically our Mum died when I was twelve and Bellamy was sixteen and she left us with basically nothing so Bellamy had to sell our house, work part time as well as going to school just to buy us food and pay our rent. He had no help from anyone and so the fact that he is where he is now it pretty amazing. It never affected me as much because Bellamy never let me worry about anything, he even turned down a place at Cambridge to stay at home with me while I finished school." Octavia explained to Raven.

"Wow, that's intense, you're very lucky to have a brother like him." Raven looked amazed at everything Octavia had just told her.

"I know right, I don't know what I would have done without him all these years. Even though I have known Clarke for years now she had never met Bellamy before tonight, because he was always away working or studying in my last couple of years of high school." Octavia continued.

"True story, I didn't even recognise him when he barged into my house earlier this evening." Clarke was still holding onto some of that residual anger from earlier.

"Yeh he doesn't make the best first impression, and I have no excuse for that." Octavia laughed and snatched some of the popcorn from Raven's bowl.

"Guys, as much as I have enjoyed this evening, I need to go to bed as I have way to much work to do tomorrow." Clarke stood up and yawned.

"Yeh, Clarkes is probably right," Raven said standing up next to Clarke. "Do you need anything for the spare room O?"

"No, I should be fine, thanks. See you all in the morning!" They all walked to their separate bedrooms and waved as they closed their doors. Clarke leant against the door, her brain spinning. She peeled off her clothes and put on her comfiest pyjamas before getting into bed and pulling the covers over her, she couldn't stop thinking about Bellamy bloody Blake, his immediate negative judgement of her, the way he called her princess, the fact that he'd understood her Homer quote without a second thought. Well that was two out of three against him, she thought, perhaps he wasn't such an ass maybe they would actually get along.


End file.
